The Colorado State Open Thread is for those who wish to discuss or learn about items pertaining to our squarish state. The Thread can start off in a number of ways, but then, in the comments, people can discuss anything at all that’s on their minds. It’s wide open.
How is the weather in your part of the state? Up here in the northern mountain area of the state, it seemed like the snow was bypassing us either to the north or the south. Since Thursday, however, we have been getting some snow every day.
Looking back on the year, it has been rather eventful, as one might usually hope. You’ll be able to read stories here in DKos about a number of the national and international events. Here in Colorado we’ve had:
- Lauren Boebert has been the most journaled political figure over various lies, scandals and outrages, not to mention questions raised about outright illegalities and possible conspiracy in the events of January 6th in Washington DC (if she was somehow smart enough)
- Not far enough behind has been the Mesa County clerk Tina Peters who did her best to lie, cheat and subvert her county’s election from 2020 and those of future years in the name of Qorruption
- A failed effort to recall our governor by Republicans who were upset he was trying to help them avoid Covid through mask and vaccination mandates and incentives.
- A rather lengthy process to shoe-horn in another federal Representative district into the state as well as adjust districts for Representatives and Senators at the state level through redistricting for our growing population
In non-political news (at least directly related) we’ve had:
- Significant disruption on numerous occasions where I-70 was blocked going through the Glenwood Canyon by mudslides
- A nice decrease in the number and severity of forest fires across the state
- A wolf-pack moved in and reproduced north of Walden in North Park, marking a natural repopulation while at the same time the voters (darn, there’s that political bent creeping in) mandated that our Parks and Wildlife department reintroduce wolves into the state
- A marked rise in violence, especially in the Denver and Colorado Springs’ metro areas, where guns (politics yet again!) are used to end many lives too early. The worst event at a single time was in Boulder, Colorado, where a gunman took ten lives with a high-powered gun in March.
- Rises and falls of Covid here in the state where we’ve managed, barely, to keep our hospital system from maximizing total use of the ICU capacity so our system has continued to function unlike in other states which have wound up with patients for Covid preventing patients with other conditions from getting emergency care, lying governors who have chosen to hide the number of patients their policies have caused and we still have been able to function in spite of the liars, frauds and Q-sters. Run-on sentences have been just like this pandemic — they’re endemic in my writing.
- Drought has returned with a vengeance to many areas of Colorado and, despite our beautiful snowfall in the mountains in this past week, we’re still well behind in our water needs. The Colorado river is also seeing cutbacks, in some places for the first time ever, so we’ll have to hope and pray that the cloud seeding and other efforts bear results.
- The truck driver who collided into stopped traffic on I-70 in Golden a couple years ago finally had his day in court and he wound up with 110 years of prison, and that was the minimum sentence possible. It shines a light on the mandatory minimum sentencing laws in Colorado and how making sentences mandatory without any room for judiciary discretion can lead to unintended consequences. He has had millions sign a petition online to give him clemency and he apparently now has another day in court in January to have a judge see if there’s any way to modify the sentence, but the original judge said he had no power to modify the sentence. It may be up to Governor Polis to change the sentence; I’m not sure the governor wants to commute the sentence completely, and short of that I’m not sure what can be done.
In my personal life, we’ve been able to resume some trips, and stayed healthy traveling to
- St. Thomas, US Virgin Islands
- Seattle, from Denver by Amtrack train
- Columbia, Misery and other points in the state to help my sister function through an operation on her shoulder
- Greece, including Athens and four islands for a two week trip
- Las Vegas to go see a concert over a weekend in December
- a number of trips to various cities, stores and destinations up and down the northern Front Range, where we’ve done our best to stimulate the local economies of our squarish state.
I’d like to thank the various authors who have contributed stories not just for this Open Thread but also about our state at various times through the year. I’d love to have some more in 2022 and I try and post any I find to the Colorado COmmunity group page as well as to more targeted group pages. I include anything about Representative Boebert to the Four Corners Kossacks group since she is their representative, and I hope you folks are able to end her tenure in office after a single term in this coming year. If anyone wants to be added to the Colorado COmmunity group or one of the smaller groups (DenverKos, Pikes Peak Region, Southern Colorado Kossacks, Four Corners Kossacks or if you’d like to start one for Eastern Colorado or any other group) please let me know and I’ll help you join in. I can even help Wyoming Kosacks, since they also have a squar(ish) state and they’re like Colorado in a number of ways.
I’m sure I’ve missed important and personal news from around our state in this column. I’d like to invite you to post what I’ve missed, including any personal events or highlights from your year, down below in the comments. The floor is yours...